William A. Radasky received the B.S. degree with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1968.  He also received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1971 and the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1981, respectively with an emphasis on the theory and applications of electromagnetics.

 

He started his career as a research engineer at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1968 working on the theory of the electromagnetic pulse (EMP).  In 1984 he founded Metatech Corporation in Goleta, California where he is currently President and Managing Engineer.  During his 41-year career, he has published over 400 technical papers, reports and articles dealing with electromagnetic interference (EMI) and protection.

 

In 1989 Dr. Radasky began his volunteer work with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) developing reports and standards to protect commercial equipment and systems against the threats of high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) and Intentional Electromagnetic Interference (IEMI).  He has led the development of 17 publications and 3 new projects as Chairman of IEC SC 77C since 1991.  In addition, he helped to coordinate all of the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) work of the IEC as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on EMC (ACEC) from 1996 to 2008.  He has also organized and presented many workshops for the IEC dealing with EMC in general and IEMI.  In 2004 he received the Lord Kelvin Award from the International Electrotechnical Commission for exceptional contributions to international standardization.  This award is presented annually to up to 3 individuals of the 15,000 active participants within the IEC.   

 

Dr. Radasky’s current interests include studies to understand the threat of IEMI and to develop mitigation and monitoring methods to protect commercial facilities from this new threat.  In addition he has been active in supporting the U.S. Congressional Commission to evaluate the threat of HEMP on commercial systems and the critical infrastructure.  He has been most active in evaluating the early-time and late-time threats of the HEMP to the power network, and has developed protection methods to be applied to minimize the impact of HEMP on electrical transmission and distribution power systems.